The team meets Morgantown lawyer Odina Loulax and a nameless dwarf who doesn't want any trouble.
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@funcityventures is the show
@bijanstephen is TK
@randwiches is Viv
@nguersh is Luxe
and @shodell is Lash
@taylordotbiz is the bad boys and
@mikerugnetta is everything else
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Recorded at Fortunate Horse in Greenpoint BK
Produced, edited and sound designed by Mike Rugnetta
Pixlriffs is our backwards talking, English hypebeast
Our music is by Sam Tyndall - http://cuneiform.xyz
Our art is by Tess Stone - http://notdrunkenough.com/
Our Discord mods are Olivia Gulin, Kestrel and Kit.
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CC-BY Licensed SFX used in this Episode:
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https://freesound.org/people/tymaue/sounds/79621/
Transcribed by Kodiak Sanders (@kodiakjs)
[ Transcription note: IC denotes in character speech, OOC denotes out of character. ] [00:00:00] [ Intro Theme begins ]
> Molly Templeton / "Artemis": [ IC ] In the early 21st century, magic reawakened on Earth, and alongside it, a new human race, with orks, elves, trolls, dwarves, and others. Humanity became metahumanity.
As technology proliferated and greatly advanced in the awakened world, global megacorporations seized ever more power, becoming de facto states with their own laws, courts, and armed forces. The corporations attempt to control all aspects of modern life. This has led to a vast and complex criminal underground which works for and against corporate interests. The independent career criminals who do what others can't or won't are called Shadowrunners.
The year is 2101. Welcome to Fun City.
[ Intro Theme concludes ] [ Main Theme begins ]
> Mike Rugnetta / G.M.: Previously on Fun City, the team is hired to blackmail the NYPD police union negotiator Verne Sollix hoping to stop a strike he’s architecting, but Verne explains that things are more complicated than they know. He says the Vladivostok-based biotechnology megacorporation Evo (the largest triple-A megacorp in New York City) is experimenting on police. He says a strike is the only way to stop them. In a meeting at the swanky police union headquarters the team is plied with beverages and Verne offers to hire them, and spill the beans on all he knows about Evo’s plot,which he admits isn’t much. This, on two conditions: first, they cancel their contract with Mo Ashina who’s given the team an extra day to finish but who has also made clear her waning confidence in their intentions. And second, they must do one small job: head to Morgantown and convince a lawyer, Odina Loulax, to stop messing with the NYPD strike plans. In return, Verne will also guarantee incriminating security footage of melted detection mage Cairn Hollbrook will cause no further grief. We’ll join the team momentarily as they approach Morgantown but first, a bit of background on their destination.
[ Main Theme concludes ]
> Mike / G.M.: Morgantown is a massive, floating and ever-growing rhizomatic city on the former site of Bushwick, Brooklyn. It’s over a thousand acres in area and constantly growing to accommodate new owners, renters, residences and businesses. Against the black-green waters of the Brooklyn Archipelago, Morgantown is clearly visible from space. It’s made up of many different floating and fixed structures, housing everything from cramped single-bed units to spacious glass-lined penthouses. Buildings are between one and twenty stories, with hundreds of different entrances on both the interior and exterior of the floatilla. It is a “town” in loose terms but also, technically, a corporation (though nothing like the triple-A megacorps you would find in Manhattan). Morgantown is a resident-owned collective with a complex bureaucracy aimed at maintaining self-sufficiency. Pursuant to the Shiawase decision of 2001, as a corporation,
Morgantown may remain sovereign as long as it produces a certain amount of consumer goods - in this case, food and healthcare - for its residents. It has its own laws, police force and tax code, it has its own rotating corporate board, a public operating budget, and it is well-known for a number of celebrity residents past and present. It is, in many ways, the crown jewel of the Brooklyn Archipelago.
Near the Mrs. Egg the team boards the skimmer which Gabe has outfit with its own navigation system tuned to the charts of New York City’s waterways, and they head out to the Archipelago and to Morgantown.
[ Transition Music plays ]
The skimmer approaches Morgantown and sort of, y’know, dips into an inlet between two of these very large buildings that make up the floatilla, that make up the town, and the skimmer just takes you deep into this maze of buildings. You can see the sun beaming through various criss- cross gaps between all of the structures, and the skimmer sort of dips in and out of all of these pools of light. The pathways are variously narrow and wide, and every once in a while you take a turn you turn into these huge, almost town square-like places that are big open waterways with lots of traffic.
[00:05:08] You can see people working on their balconies, you can see all these terraces - from the outside, Morgantown looks really bleak; it’s traced over with a lot of undecorated ladders and fire escapes, it’s got a lot of surveillance equipment on its outside, it’s festooned with all of these spotlights and guards’ quarters, but the interior is very different. Much of the surface of every building is draped with greenery, with all of these public platforms at stepped heights throughout. You pass through low-lying, genetically-engineered rice patties, you think you see some corn up in a high far corner, you can see a small group of residents wearing high-vis Morgantown Department of Public Works vests, and they’re working on this - they’re working on a floating platform in one of those large open waterway areas; they’re trimming some large brightly-lit trees that are growing out of a giant planter that’s in the center of the open waterway. You also see as you’re driving around a couple of Morgantown Police Department boats and what you notice is that - much like most of the NYPD they are also unarmed, but you also notice that it appears as though there is equal distribution here amongst the metahuman races and that you see a lot of orcs, you see some dwarves, you don’t see any trolls but also the boats are small so who knows what that’s about (it’s hard to make things for trolls, they’re quite large), but it’s not just humans, and you know, in your experience in New York City, you know that most police officers that you interact with are humans. The skimmer takes you left down one pathway, takes you right down another pathway, sort of circles further and further, gets deep into this maze of buildings, and it slows down in front of a very short water-level pier, and about half a dozen dinghies with small electric water-jet motors are lined up outside. The skimmer settles autonomously in a little space marked “Loulax and Partners client parking.” The pier leads only and directly to a single opaque glass door that is decorated with a honeycomb pattern and in one of the lower hexagons you can see amongst some other names, “Odina Loulax, Esquire.” It’s also been long enough, it was quite a journey getting to the boat and then getting to Morgantown, that Viv I think your buzz has probably worn off. Do you want to say you took a nap on the way there?
> Jenn de la Vega / "Vivian Lakewood": [ OOC ] Yes that’s exactly what I was about to say, Viv had been laying on one of the couches on the skimmer, just face-up and taking in the sun, letting the water splash her in the face, and sobered up over that time.
> Nick Guercio / "Luxe Scythe": [ OOC ] The rest of us were crowded on the other couch. But we were happy to let you.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] She needs her space.
> Bijan Stephen / "T.K.": [ OOC ] T.K. was standing up like he was trying to surf. He was just
like “yeah.”
> Shannon Odell / "Lash Goodbog": [ IC ] alright what’s the plan here?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I say we just go in.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] We’re just gonna go in and say “hey we’re shadowrunners hired to get you to make a decision?”
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] ...I wouldn’t lead with that.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Okay.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Uhh, have you guys found anything about her?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Oh I’ll do a quick matrix search for that.
> Mike / G.M.: I won’t even, yeah, you-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah I know you’re not gonna make me roll it.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah I’m not gonna make you roll. Yeah what do you want to know? Is there anything specific, do you just want to know what her deal is?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I want to know what her deal is, I also want to know like any like weird- like what her connections are like to- does she have any connections to societies in the same way that like Verne is connected with the PBA? Like is she, does she represent any sort of...
> Mike / G.M.: You find - I mean it’s very easy to find her website, she has a public presence, it’s easy to find some of the cases that she’s been involved in cause it’s all public information and she takes on a lot of cases that are individuals arguing against corporations. And you can see that she does a lot of work with people trying to hold large companies and large powerful forces to account.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Interesting, does she have any history of suing the PBA?
> Mike / G.M.: So one of the other things that you would figure out pretty quickly looking at the history of the cases that she’s been involved in and it’s actually plastered in- it’s plastered very clearly on her website, is that she has been doing this for quite a while, and so you can look and you can see that she’s had cases with and against the NYPD Incorporated long into the past, you know like a couple decades. You don’t see anything recently related to the PBA if that’s what you’re looking for but like, yeah she has been involved in legal disputes with NYPD incorporated in the past.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I guess I just relay the relevant information to our teammates.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] What about personal information? Where she lives, contacts, who
she knows, family?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I check out if she has a soundcloud.
> Mike / G.M.: She’s not- she’s not uploading sick beats onto the matrix. > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Right.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] ...onto tune bumper?
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah as far as you can tell she is not a hip-hop producer. > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Okay.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] So yeah, I guess I look for the other stuff that Luxe was talking about, about like- y’know what’s her- where does she live, what’s like- what’s the publicly information, like what’s available about her relationships to other people.
[00:10:04] > Mike / G.M.: That I’m gonna make you roll for.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Okay. I’ve got dice. Uhh...three hits.
> Mike / G.M.: Most of the stuff that you find is pretty publicly available because again she’s - she’s not a private person, she does work in public. She has lived, she works and has lived in Morgantown for a number of decades, it seems like she’s been here for a while, it seems like her law practice has been here for a while, and it’s been in operation for- probably about, maybe thirty years. She’s been on the Morgantown board a couple times because they do elections pretty frequently and they change around the different responsibilities, the board shrinks and the board grows, they try different committees- so she’s been on a bunch of committees, you can find out that she is a member of the lenape tribe and she seems to have done a lot of work like we- like I said, she seems to have done a lot of work with individuals who are otherwise just trying to trying to- trying to hold powerful forces to account.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Exactly who we expect but I think we should just go meet her.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Should we do any kind of a ploy when we meet her? I mean we’re just walking into her office she’s not gonna want to- she’s probably a busy woman.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Certainly won’t be using my real name.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] We could pretend we need some legal advice. Cause we always need
legal advice.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] You guys don’t say your names at all. Please. DOn’t show her your fingerprints.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I plan to just stand in the corner menacingly.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] So the problem with trying to con someone blind like this is we don’t know what she wants, and if we take a guess at what she would want or what would intimidate her and we’re wrong then we’re stuck, so we might want to have a genuine conversation with this lady and find out what she actually wants.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] OK. You take the lead.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Sounds good to me.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yeah you got it Luxe.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] You’re good at talking, you can do this.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] So you guys want to go in and say that we are looking for legal advice, on what?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Maybe someone conned you out of all of your money and belongings.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] And you did follow through with it,
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Right.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] And gave it to them, but now you’re thinking “well...maybe,” > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Mmhmm.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] “...our handshake wasn’t necessarily a binding contract.”
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Right.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] I don’t know, just spitballing here. > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay so the idea-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Was the person- was the person a corporation maybe? Could we spin it that way, the corporation took all your money?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] ...it was very much a fourteen year old boy.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] So the idea is to put a case in front of her that’s so attractive that she abandons her life work for whatever type of justice she’s pursuing and tries to help Lash get her things back from a teenager/corporation.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I believe in your skill to try to figure out what she needs. I don't know if we need this plan, but if you think it’ll help us get in the door, sure.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] We have it in the back pocket. > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Alright, let’s go talk to her.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Let’s go.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Door noise.
> Mike / G.M.: OK. Taylor? Do you want to provide a door noise?
> Taylor Moore / "The Bad Boys": [ OOC ] [ Taylor laughs ] I just like hearing Bij say “door
noise.”
> Mike / G.M.: Door noise. So when you swing the door open you are hit by a blast of warm humid air and the sound of many electronics whirring, and you see what was once a very large white walled room, in it there are a number of people standing around a long table that’s piled really high with paper, and e-paper, books, tablets, commlinks, cyberdecks, handheld recording devices, all kinds of stuff. The table is just ringed with, y’know, you can see an orc, you can see a couple elves, a couple humans; the walls of the office are lined with boxes that are labeled with various names and numbers. It all seems very organized but it’s all kind of like teetering on the edge of being too much, like everything looks like it’s all just about ready to fall over. And in the back corner you see, after you’ve been in there for maybe two seconds, the source of the hot air and the whirring is that there is a very large server rack that occupies a space that is roughly the size of the skimmer, so there’s like a big chunk of servers that are all kind of like blinking there’s like a nice little blue light-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] T.K. starts salivating a little bit. [Mike laughs] > Mike / G.M.: It is- it’s like- it’s not state of the art, but there’s a lot of it.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] That’s even better.
[00:14:27] > Mike / G.M.: Yeah okay. Like sort of vintage you’re like “ooh nice.” And you can see sort of - not closest to you but y’know, within a few feet of the entrance, standing at the table is a smallish woman that T.K., you would probably recognize from having seen her photos looking around the matrix. She’s about 5’2”, she’s facing away from you but you can tell that her complexion is dark and she has medium length hair that you can tell was like once dark black but now is kind of salt-and-pepper, with some liberal gray strands sprinkled throughout. And as soon as she hears the door open she turns around very carefully and you can see that in her arms she has piles of folders and e-paper tablets, and she’s got like y’know a commlink draped over her shoulder and she’s wearing like a long blue-gray cardigan, and she sees you and she says “oh, sorry, my caseload is very full” and she looks you up and down, she says “I do not practice criminal defense any longer. If you would like a referral I will gladly send you to my colleague Desmond, he is a very skilled attorney,” and she looks directly at Viv and makes a little quizzical like sort of look and says “and he does know a thing or two about the awakened. He will treat you no doubt very well, if you have been wronged you do deserve good counsel.”
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Well ah, that’s really nice of you to say and trust me we’ve gotten it before, but we actually don’t need any criminal defense whatsoever.
> Mike / G.M.: Oh then, which of my employees are you here to threaten?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Oh, we’re not here to threaten anyone, I’m sorry, I’m just looking for
Odina?
> Mike / G.M.: Yes, you are speaking to her.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Oh! Oh that’s so great. Oh yes, I was wondering if you had a few minutes to speak.
> Mike / G.M.: I don’t.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay. Oh wow. Okay, so I was sent here, My name is Thom, uh, Yorke, and I- [ cast laughs ] I represent a consortium of people - many of which work for major corporations - who stand to make a lot of money if the police union strike went through; apparently there’s a clause that they would have to renegotiate all contracts and there are many megacorps who’d like to sweep in, make money. Before I took up the task I had several people tell me to speak with you first, I was told there may be some ethical implications here and I may not actually want to be supporting the strike and I was told to talk to you to see if that was the case, I was told you oppose it and I’d like to hear from the source why you do.
> Mike / G.M.: Roll your con. > Nick / “Luxe”: [OOC] Okay.
> Mike / G.M.: What is the opposed for this?
> Nick / “Luxe”: [OOC] The opposed on con is...
> Mike / G.M.: It’s charisma plus negotiation is that what it is?
> Nick / “Luxe”: [OOC] If you have con or negotiation you can use that plus intuition. And I’m rolling...fourteen.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Wait so, what you said is that you’re representing some people who would make money if they did strike.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yes.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Okay okay, yes yes.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I’m saying that the corporations like the non-Evos that currently- > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] So you want them to strike.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] So I want them to strike-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] And she’s against the strike
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] She’s against the strike so I was told by people “you might not want to oppose the strike, there may be some ethical implications there, you might want to go talk to Odina about that,” so just so we’re all clear on our team, I’m not telling her anything that is trying to trick her or anything,
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yep.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I am just trying to make sure she is as open as possible about telling
us why the strike is wrong as possible, that’s all this con is about.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I think her perception is like very high.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] ...but?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] But is his con stronger?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] But he’s got two hits...
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I think I might use an edge. Cause I only got two. > Mike / G.M.: She’s been practicing law for thirty-five years.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah it might not be worth it to use an edge. > Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Alright I’ll take two.
> Mike / G.M.: It’s fine, no, do it do it!
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Cause how much edge do you have?
> Mike / G.M.: The only thing that you need to do to get more edge is basically to, you know.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Play the game.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah pun or, y’know play Luxe to his maximum.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] It’s so beneath them. The pun edge is so beneath this cast.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah whenever Taylor groans is when I know we’ve done a good job. [ Taylor laughs ]
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I’ll take two.
> Mike / G.M.: Are you sure Nick?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay. I mean she actually didn’t do that well.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Get her, drag her. Drag her king. > Mike / G.M.: Look at this, look at this.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Did she glitch?
> Mike / G.M.: No. But she did not- she did not do well.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] These dice...are rigged!
> Mike / G.M.: Tie goes to the shadowrunner
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Oh no way! Okay cool.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, yeah tell me just in game terms sort of what you want her to be- you want her to be willing.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] In game terms, we know nothing, we asked Verne what was her deal, why was she trying to stop it, we know nothing about it - if I go up to her and say “I’m working
for Verne to stop you,” you’re not gonna be very open to telling me anything about what you’re doing. What I want to do is set up the fact, what I’ve tried to do here is set up the fact that I’m potentially on your side, or potentially against it, I don’t know, there’s a possible vested interest for me and my cohorts here, we want to know if there’s ethical implications to supporting the strike. You seem against it, so I’m just trying to get it- I’m trying to start from a neutral point to learn what you are because again, a cold con to try to get you to change your thing I don’t think works. Or I could try to do it but I didn’t-
[00:20:06] > Mike / G.M.: I see what you’re saying. So what I will say is this in game terms, the strike is not public and there is no public information about her thoughts on it. As far as you know, the number of people who know about the strike is maybe twice the number of people who know about it in the room you’re currently in. So, accordingly, as soon as you mention the PBA and the policeman’s strike she gives you- she gives you a very strange look, and she squints a little bit and she asks “how do you know about the policeman’s strike? Who did you say sent you, a consortium of corporations interested in- um, I’m sorry, who are you?”
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I um, I cannot talk about all the corporations that I potentially could work with. Because again, like I said, we have not begun working with them. We are potentially going to make the strike public- the possibility of a strike public, to drum up public support, because it seems like it may or may not happen at this point. Before that happens, before I get involved and my associates here get involved, I have been told on good authority that I might not want to even be dealing with this at all. This might be a complete clusterfuck that I don’t even want to mess with. I’ve been told to speak with you and find out why you are against it. That’s all I’ve been told; if you’ve got nothing to share with me you’ve got nothing to share with me, but I am telling you as honest as I can that I just want to know why you oppose the strike.
> Mike / G.M.: Nick, do you remember off the top of your head what the roll for judge intentions is?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yes. Charisma plus intuition. > Mike / G.M.: Really.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I also would want to know exactly what you’re judging because the last sentence I said is true, so
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah I think that’s what she’s trying to figure out. She is- she is- I will make this very clear, as you’re describing this to her, the way she is looking at you, you as an expert in reading people can tell that she is not inclined to believe any words that’s coming out of your mouth. She is very suspicious of you. I think that you can chock this up to ‘don’t bullshit a bullshitter,’ she has spent her life talking to people and convincing them of things, and she can tell someone who’s very good at it. And I think her professional acumen has led her to be immediately suspicious of someone who is a good talker. So that is- that is why she’s trying to judge your intentions, because the fact that you are good at this is something that tips her off to “there’s a reason you’re good at this, and I wonder what that is.”
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Right, yes. Makes sense.
> Mike / G.M.: So I’m not metagaming you, I’m just gonna roll- I’m just gonna roll one specific thing. Listen, I think it’s very simple. They have a contract problem. The people who are trying to foment a strike in the Policeman’s Benevolence Association; it’s like when all you have is a hammer all your problems look like nails. If they think that Evo is doing something wrong, and they think that there are people who are in danger, they need to renegotiate their contract, they don’t need to abuse the power of a union. And what’s more, who knows what will happen to this city if the police go on strike? Historically, crime has gone down when the police have gone on strike, but I would really rather not find out what happens when the whole of the NYPD police force doesn’t have something to focus their attention every day. Truthfully, the thing I’m worried the most about is the corporations. What do they do when their main security provider isn’t around to enforce their laws, to protect their sovereign land? Does Ares become the de facto law force of the entire city when every corporation takes out a contract with Knight Errant Security? And if so, I mean I can’t imagine that is an amount of power that anybody would give up so easily - or does every corporation simply roll in their own private army and navy? We’ve done a lot in this city and I’ve done a lot in my career to create a federation of corporate-sponsored neighborhoods that are willing to work together, and it has not always been that way, and...as much as it is important to hold the NYPD to account, I can’t help but wonder what would happen in the power vacuum that would be created, were they to go on strike.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] It sounds like you know- > Mike / G.M.: Who did you say sent you?
[00:24:52] > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I am not at liberty to say at the moment; I understand that makes it hard for you to answer questions, but I have one more. If you can answer it you can, if you can’t you can’t, I understand that. It sounds like you know about Evo, and what they may be doing - do you understand that this strike is a way to immediately sever that contract, immediately. Not years of litigation, not decades of back-and-forth, not “you can keep fucking with people’s minds for the next six months or year or two years” and God knows who’s gonna pay for the repercussions of that - immediately, done, Evo, out.
> Mike / G.M.: She turns around and looks at her employees, who- some of whom have stopped doing their work and who are listening to the sermon that you’re giving basically, and she walks back to the table from the middle of the room where she’s standing in front of the door, and she puts down her large pile of heavy- like heavy electronics and e-paper and y’know tablets that she’s holding, and she puts it down and she- you can tell that she’s gathering herself and she says “why don’t you join me in my office.” And she walks to your left and starts walking through a door and as she walks through it she stops and she removes the commlink that you saw on her shoulder that- y’know some of the wires are kind of dangling around, part of it is attached over the side of her ear, and she places it in a small golden bowl that’s atop a cubby box that’s to the right of her door and she says “if you could please leave your electronics outside, it will ensure that we’ll be able to have a private conversation,” and she goes into the office.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv takes a moment to untangle the seashell and kelp from underneath her caftan and it kind of clatters on the floor while she’s trying to grab the other parts, but she does contribute to the bowl.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Lash puts her extremely broken not-in-use commlink that does not function in the bowl because she does not need a commlink, but she wears one because she doesn’t want to be looked at.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] It takes T.K. a second to decide what he’s gonna do cause he’s like “do- I don’t- I don’t know if I should...”
> Mike / G.M.: You can roll to see if you trust her, you could ask your teammates, I mean...
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah, I think he’s- I think he saw how she saw right through Luxe’s spiel and like y’know kind of cut through- I think he’s inclined to trust her but he’s also like- I don’t know how long he’s ever been without his deck.
> Mike / G.M.: She pokes her head out of the door and gestures at your arm and is like “obviously some of it is okay to come in.”
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I think he just puts it in his arm, like his commlink, I mean his deck is still in his arm but I guess he like takes off his commlink and puts it in. So it’s- I don’t know what that- those are two separate items, I don’t know what that looks like.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah those are two separate items.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Okay so he leaves his commlink there. > Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Luxe puts his commlink in the bowl.
> Mike / G.M.: So you walk in through the door and it’s a very small room with a tiny desk that is mostly filled with actual pieces of paper, like printed y’know wood-pulp paper, and this room is much more austere than the room that you just came from there’s not much in it at all, you can tell that this is maybe kind of like ‘the thinking zone,’ like this is the escape from the hectic situation that’s happening out in the main room with all of her employees and the server and the huge piles of paper, and there aren’t enough chairs for all of you but there’s y’know some windowsill you can perch on, there’s a single window in the room and she sits behind her small wooden desk, doesn’t have any drawers in it, it’s just a very simple plank of wood with some metal legs on it and she kind of just sits expectantly and looks at you all and waits for you to say the next thing you have to say.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Luxe looks around at the surroundings, and kind of ponders out loud, [ IC ] you’re not doing any of this for the money, are you?
> Mike / G.M.: No, if I was doing things for the money I would be a corporate lawyer, and not not a corporate lawyer.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I don’t know if I’ve ever met a non-corporate lawyer. > Mike / G.M.: There are not many of us.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv is like scratching her head and she leans against the doorframe, crossing her arms like “woah.”
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Well, you could be making millions, why do you do this?
> Mike / G.M.: You...in the making of millions, you lose many other things.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Wow. [ Taylor laughs ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] T.K. is immediately reminded of the affirmations from Jast. [ Mike laughs ]
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Are you flashing back to “Mountaintop Gates?”
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yes.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Mountaintop Gates Incorporated - the only zen at the top of the mountain is the zen you bring with you.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] [ imitating Taylor ] “...you bring with you.” [ Jenn and Taylor laugh ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] T.K.’s smiling to himself, he doesn’t mention this to anybody.
> Mike / G.M.: It is - I really want her to have a witty aphorism ready, but unfortunately I’m playing someone who is far above my weight class in both wisdom and poise, so forgive me [ Mike laughs ]
[00:30:06] > Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Fake it till you make it, just pretend to have poise! [ Mike laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: So much of the world is so far gone already, and what stands between us now and even further social collapse is a very fine line, and I am just one person but I try to do the best that I can, and I find that it helps me sleep at night if I don’t work for the people who can provide the millions. And you do or do not work for the people who have money? You’ll have to forgive me, it is not that I’m not interested in what you have to say - it’s that I haven’t heard from any of your colleagues, and so I would like to know- are you his bodyguards?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Lash Goodbog, nice to meet you [ Shannon and Mike laugh ] [ OOC ] I immediately show my fingerprints which are now replaced with mini-muffins.
> Mike / G.M.: Like literal mini-muffins?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Literal mini-muffins.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] How- how dumb is Lash? [ cast laughs ] I understand that maybe some like futuristic printing of fingerprints might make - might give them some kind of appearance that could theoretically be described as muffinesque, but to take a muffin top of [ Shannon and Bijan laugh ] and put it on your fingers is like... ”drank mercury and ate lead chips for twenty years as a kid” stupid. [ Taylor and Shannon laugh ]
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah okay sure sure but she does say “Lash Goodbog, nice to meet you. Cause Lash immediately trusts-
> Mike / G.M.: Everybody.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Not everybody, but she gets a good feel- she also does not care about money, she does things because, y’know, it feels right so she immediately when she walked in there and saw there was paper everywhere and just like immediately also knew that she wasn’t doing it for the money she was like y’know what, I- she kind of jumped in front of Luxe and was like “hi, I’m Lash.”
> Mike / G.M.: She very quickly and easily puts out her hand and shakes- do- wait, so, so is this canon-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] No there’s not really muffins- there’s not really muffins there. [ Nick laughs ] That was more of just a little inside-
> Mike / G.M.: There definitely can be.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah, no no, she just- she just has normal hands.
> Mike / G.M.: Hold on I’m gonna roll her strength. [ Nick and Shannon laugh ] The handshake’s- yeah, she’s an old lady. When you go in for the handshake and you kind of get a closer look at her face and you actually like touch her hand, yeah she’s getting on. You can see she’s got y’know her face is pretty well-wrinkled, you also do notice actually, since you’re the person who got like really close to her, her left iris sort of like twists and focuses and flashes in a way that only slightly older cybernetic technology does, and you actually do notice a very well- healed but very old scar that goes from the edge of her left eye to back behind her ear.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Okay.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I think T.K. walks up and says “T.K.” and then holds out his fist for
a fist bump.
> Mike / G.M.: She bumps your fist. Haven’t done one of those in quite a while. [ Jenn laughs ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] T.K. just nods.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ IC ] Hello, I’ve been hired as nonviolent protection which I think is
completely unnecessary for today. > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay-
> Mike / G.M.:Glad to hear that I’m- I like the word nonviolent, and what did you say your name was? I’m sorry I’m not sure that I caught it.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC] My name is Luxe I wasn’t being completely honest with you about my name, nor about who I was working for, okay? I do have an interest I’m working for that are interested in the strike, I was being honest with you there- we don’t know anything about it, so I am literally here to talk to you about why you oppose it because you bring up a good point about supporting the corporations but I have to be honest with you, you supporting not striking is also supporting all of those corporations in power right now and using funds, from the police, to fund things like Evo is doing, which also I don’t know...
> Mike / G.M.: Let’s go one at a time.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC] Yes.
> Mike / G.M.: So who did send you here? Or are you here of your own volition?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I would honestly say that I’m here of my own volition.
> Mike / G.M.: Con me. Unless you don’t think that’s a con roll.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I don’t think it is because I’m-
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] I mean, yeah. In the midst of your just- doing other things. > Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Straight-up charm? Diplomacy?
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah I actually think maybe charm, yeah charm, yeah charm me.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Just straight-up charm.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Straight-up charisma?
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Yeah- oh sorry charisma. Uhhh.
> Mike / G.M.: Oh yeah charisma that’s fine.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Wrong game!
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] No one calls it charm. Charm’s a spell! [ Taylor laughs ]
We’re having fun.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I got two hits.
> Mike / G.M.: But you are I mean, correct me if I’m wrong I’ve been doing this for quite a while, you are shadowrunners are you not?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] We’re private contractors.
> Mike / G.M.: So yes.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yes.
[00:34:58] > Mike / G.M.: And this is- this is not- you are not, as they say, on a run at the moment, or you are?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] We’re not on a run at the moment...exactly.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] That’s- [ Taylor laughs ] if you add an “exactly” do you
have to make a deception check? [ Mike and Taylor laugh ]
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Anything could be a run if you think about it.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah...we’re here to try to encourage you to help the strike along. But I am genuinely here to find out why you oppose it. I do not- that is one-hundred percent my intention here. I had one rule for these guys which is to not use their real names and they broke that immediately, I don’t know how long the con could have last- so I am openly telling you I do genuinely want to know why you want to stop the strike.
> Mike / G.M.: Got it.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] T.K. does point out that he did not use his real name. [ IC ] So, it’s
them, not me, that you have to blame.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Thank you.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv did not say her name [ Jenn laughs ]
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Lash said her full first name - last name. [ Jenn and Mike laugh ]
> Mike / G.M.: [ imitating Shannon ] “Lash Goodbog, good to meet you!” Okay, you see her face go from quizzical and sort of nonplussed to a kind of reserved understanding, she’s like
“okay I think I see what’s going on here,” is the look that you get from her, and she says “it’s actually not too different from what I just said. The strike is the misuse of power by a force that is already misused. The police union is a very powerful entity that has lots of control of the city, they are amongst some of the most powerful people in New York. And if they wanted to take on Evo, if they wanted to take on Aztechnology, if they wanted to give Satyr-Krupp a run for their money, they partnered with those companies decades ago in order to rebuild the city. For them to claim that the only way for them to solve a problem that they have is to go on strike and cause god knows how many other problems is either stupidity or cowardice. And I happen to know some of the people who run the PBA, and I know that they are not stupid. So I think that they are being cowardly. And if they want to solve this problem - which surely goes far, far beyond the police officers and the Police Benevolence Association, then they should do what they are charged with doing, and they should protect this city, they should use their power to protect this city, not to run away from protecting it, and that is why I am against them putting together this cockamamie strike. They are going to solve a problem by creating more problems and it’s just- in my line- as they say, ‘you hate to see it.’” [ Jenn laughs ]
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Listen, this is what I’m seeing, Luxe is coming out big on this one, I’m seeing that we’re both on the- I think we’re all on the same team here. We- we want- [ Taylor laughs ]
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] When Lash says that, what is the vibe of the room in that beat of silence?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv is just undecided she just has no idea because at this point like where is she gonna get her next paycheck?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] T.K. is just like projecting a “don’t look at me” vibe, he’s just like “nahh.”
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] As I read the room - I’m looking my left, I’m looking to my right - what I’m seeing is we’re all on the same side here, we just all maybe are confused on the way to get here- get there. We are looking to get to the bottom of what’s going on. We are looking to get to the bottom of what’s going on at Evo, and we found that this is the way to do it, and you also want to get to the bottom of what’s going on at Evo, so I would like to hear how you propose that this would happen without the strike.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I’d also like to propose something. > Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] A toast?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] We can’t-
> Mike / G.M.: I’m sorry I’m currently at work.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Okay.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] We can’t drink any more today. > Jenn / “Viv”: [ IC ] Yes, agreed.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] How are you feeling Viv?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ IC ] Feeling confused.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay.
> Mike / G.M.: You look a little blue, but maybe that’s just how you normally look. > Jenn / “Viv”: [ IC ] It is. [ Shannon and Bijan laugh ]
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Our employer has promised me inside access to exactly what’s going on with Evo. We need to stop you - encourage you to stop trying to stop the strike - in order for us to take that next step. What I propose is that we work on the inside with you to get everything that you would need - from Evo, from their servers, from their company - if we all gotta infiltrate there, hack them, impersonate them, find- we are shadowrunners and we’re actually good at it despite everything we’re doing here right now. [ Mike laughs ] And I get the feeling that you don’t have a lot of resources like that, and to put together a case against Evo you’re going to need it. I’m proposing we work together, and the only way forward I can see is for you to lay off the PBA. [ sound of dice rolling ]
[00:40:10] > Mike / G.M.: Wow. She’s a very clever lady who’s somewhat confused by this situation. [ Nick laughs ]
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] She didn’t get much sleep last night.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, I think she’s been working in the office in that humid room with that giant
computer system running. [ Shannon laughs ]
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Are these the nicest shadowrunners she’s ever met?
> Mike / G.M.: I think so! [ Jenn laughs ] I think she’s like really does not know how to read this situation, and is having a very hard time knowing what anybody’s intentions are, and like how this has possibly come to pass. She- she doesn’t look- she’s not upset by the offer, she is a little confused, and she says “this is a lot to take in and I would perhaps need a moment to think about it but one thing that is clear and I would like to be clear about right off the bat is that I am not in a position to hire anybody on several fronts. The first being, as you may have noticed, we are not well-resourced at my company, most of the people you saw in the front room are volunteers - they are community college students from Morgantown, they are people who come in from other parts of the city who are trying to get their family members off death row, they are people who want- they think that their friends have been wrongfully imprisoned and they are trying to work on cases to get them freed - I can’t pay you anything. And the second is that as a legal representative, I can’t be employing criminals. I know that we live in times where you
would think that people would do what it takes, but I just cannot shepherd a group of criminals through criminal activities. If you have an interest in helping - and I would guess that you are here because you thought that you were helping - and it is maybe even the case that whoever it is that sent you also thinks that they are helping - I will do whatever I can to assist. I do not know that we can work together, in the sense of, I cannot build a case from what you bring me, but if I can be a resource to you, and you think that we are in agreement in what the right course of action is, then yes I will take that assistance. I can’t use any information that is gained through illegal means, but there are perhaps different areas in this challenge that both of us can cover, as long as, as far as I know, your involvement remains nonviolent-” and she looks at Viv.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv bows with a flourish.
> Mike / G.M.: Then I think that, yes it is possible that we can work together. I mean I had not before this moment considered- I mean to be perfectly honest I was kind of just fucking with the PBA, because I don’t like them, and I am in a position to cause them trouble, and sometimes that is my job: it is to slow the roll of people who would do harm to the citizenry of the city. But if you come from a place of knowledge, and you think there is something that we can do, and we can hold Evo to account, then yes I am listening.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] What we’ve done before in terms of working together is...have you ever heard of a tree trunk in the forest? Sometimes when people want things-
> Mike / G.M.: She leans forward.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Sometimes when people want things, they write them down on pieces of paper, and they put them in a tree trunk in the forest, and they’re not working with anybody who is in the forest at all, but the things that they write on those pieces of paper do come true. So T.K. has a special spot that we call the tree trunk that he could give you access to. This is completely untraceable, he’s very good at doing things like that. Anything you want, put it in the tree trunk. We might not do anything with it, it might be completely law-abiding organizations that do, you don’t know.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Sometimes we put recipes for pancakes in there.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Recipes for pancakes, yes Lash, thank you, you can find things in the
tree trunk.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Secret recipes.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Really good ones.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] There is a Lash folder in the tree trunk.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yes. Does that sound like something that could work for you?
> Mike / G.M.: I’m unfamiliar with the argot of the tree trunk but yes, I have heard of a dead drop before.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay. [ Shannon laughs ] I was trying not to use any term that could get you in trouble. [ Mike laughs ] But yes!
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I guess I- yeah I think T.K. just starts coding one up during this meeting.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay. Hold on, she’s gonna roll again- it also dawns on me that we have maybe gotten caught up in a process-level discussion, [ Shannon laughs ] and while we both agree that something must be done about Evo, we have not discussed exactly about what it is that needs doing about. When you talk about the problems at Evo, you mean the people who have changed.
[00:45:02] > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yes.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Exactly.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Can you tell us what you know? About the people who have changed? > Mike / G.M.: That’s what I know.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] That’s about what we know.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] And that’s a problem.
> Mike / G.M.: So maybe, the first thing that you can do...Verne sent you.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Who?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Someone that goes by that name is familiar to us.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay. Yes I see, a plan is coming together. I understand now. I will stop troubling Verne. I have a busy caseload anyways I can’t push through any further action everything that I’ve been doing up until this point, I’ve just been trying to dissuade him and trying to make a point but you know, I will be happy to just lay off if you think that what you can do is to actually find out who some of these people are, and to do the best that you can to get a statement from them. Or, even better, convince them to come to me and give me a statement.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] The people who have changed, or the people who..?
> Mike / G.M.: I think it will be quite a while before you have any contact with anyone at Evo who is doing-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Right.
> Mike / G.M.: -whatever is resulting in this, so I think it is likely that you will be able to find out from the PBA who some of the affected parties are. And once you have a sense of who those people are we will likely be able to figure out who else has been afflicted. Because my guess- it is never just the police. It is never just one group of people. It is likely a much larger problem, and this is - can’t believe I’m going to say this - the tip of the iceberg.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I don’t know what that is.
> Mike / G.M.: Oh they used to be around-
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Icebergs were large, frozen...oh goddammit.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Just like balloons. Just like balloons!
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Nash equilibrium! [ Taylor laughs ]
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] I think you used to bring them to birthday parties, to celebrate.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Oh right, yes, you had to blow them up.
> Mike / G.M.: Have you heard of the Brooklyn Archipelago, the place that we are right now, with all of the-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yes.
> Mike / G.M.: All of this water used to be those.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I see. Ah, we’re just in the tip of them right now aren’t we, I get it that’s a perfect analogy. [ Mike and Taylor laugh ] Well, thank you so much, my grandfather...and you seem to know a lot about unions-
> Mike / G.M.: I have done a fair amount of labor law, yes.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] He was in the train-catchers union, did you ever work for them?
> Mike / G.M.: Ah, from when the AI took over and they needed to formulate a union in roughly twenty-four hours, in order to represent the laborers to catch the trains, yes I did.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Buckle up we’re in Luxe storyteller mode about his grandfather! > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Ah, I don’t need to tell you the story, I just want to say thank you.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I feel like T.K. at this point, knowing what’s going to happen, sends Verne a message saying “it’s done” ccing everybody else on his comm.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay. Well so what- how do you want this to work? In game terms. Like, let me know, like as people who are sitting at the table, what are you interested in doing? What’s cool to you as a relationship with Odina and then let’s make it official in the game.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I mean it seems like she knows a lot of people and contacts. > Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] She’d be a very valuable contact, yeah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Exactly. I think we get her information, convince her to trust us- and we did the second thing, so.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Now we stay- I think we promise to keep her abreast of what’s going
on as much as we can in the Verne part of it.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Luxe’s opinion I’ve just been stating which is I care primarily about finding out what’s going on with Evo and getting to the bottom of it, it sounds like she could be a great resource and working together- so I genuinely was like yeah let’s work together, but I guess we should all be sure we agree on that.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah I think we do. > Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: So she explains, “when you have things that you think I should know, or you need information from me, let’s communicate via the tree trunk. I’m not going to give you my comm number. If you would like to come back to the office you may, but don’t darken my doorstep, don’t cause any trouble when you’re here, and if you can, please give notice when you’re on your way.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Sounds good to me.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv puts her hands together and says [ IC ] Understood.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] T.K.’s like [ IC ] uhh, full disclosure, I still have to code up this tree trunk but as soon as we get it- well I have a prototype here but as soon as we get it working.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Lash? Any last questions?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Uhh...how legally binding is a handshake when you bet all of your belongings in a footrace?
> Mike / G.M.: In the state of New York, a verbal contract is legally binding for six years. [ Shannon sighs ]
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Six years ‘til I can get my dog back.
> Mike / G.M.: I’m sorry- [Taylor and Jenn laugh ] perhaps-
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] How old was the dog when you lost him?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Twelve years old.
> Mike / G.M.: Perhaps I was unclear; it is not that the contract is enforced for six years, and then the terms reverse, it is-
[00:49:49] > Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] I got you loud and clear.
> Mike / G.M.: You...you know, I’m sure we will have plenty of opportunity to discuss all of
your various legal problems.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Oh, that would be great, thank you very much. > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Alright. Let’s go get back on that iceberg.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Icebergs away.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Let’s go fuck this chicken.
> Mike / G.M.: You guys leave the office? [ Door slams ] So as you leave you pick up all of your commlinks, you are sort of like vaguely sized up by the employees, by her volunteer employees as you leave, they don’t say anything to you but a couple of them kind of look you up and down; y’know they all look pretty normal so to you- to them, you are very glamorous, you have a kind of lifestyle and life experience that is very different from them, and for some of them I think that you represent the kind of iconic image that led some of the people that they love into ruin, and into an unfortunate situation. So I think that there is a large range of very palpable reactions to your presence in this place.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv is the last one to leave and she holds the door open a little bit- just looks around the room, just very quickly, waves a hand a little bit so some of the humidity in the air surges toward the doorway, cooling it off maybe one degree.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] That’s nice.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Pretty cool trick
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] That’s a nice touch.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] That’s a nice thing you did.
> Mike / G.M.: That is nice. [ Jenn laughs ]
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] You did a nice thing for them.
> Mike / G.M.: Odina gives you just a slight wave as you leave and says “we’ll be in touch. We’ll be in tree trunk.” [ Nick laughs ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] See you on the big T.T. [ Ad break ]
> Mike / G.M.: You guys are- you guys are kind of in free play at the moment, do whatever- what do you want to do?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I mean I think T.K.’s gonna work on the tree trunk, cause... > Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] We go home to the Mrs. Egg.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Cause we have stuff to do I think.
> Mike / G.M.: If you want to do the first of several software tests right now, we can just say- let’s say you have to write a piece of software that’s essentially keybase. [ Jenn laughs ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah I mean that’s what it is.
> Mike / G.M.: Like single-user keybase?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Yeah I mean I can spin this up in twenty minutes now.
> Mike / G.M.: But I think if you want to use something that is legitimately homebrewed..
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Oh okay. Well we gotta start a Trello board. [ Mike laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: You gotta argue about which project management software you want to use.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] We gotta have our own map and we gotta have a map to map it on.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Well can you open the folder, no, okay, send me the thing again? > Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] ...could there be like a social aspect to the platform? [
Mike laughs ]
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yeah, likes, shares.
> Mike / G.M.: Oh, actually you know what? I know it hasn’t even launched yet but let’s pivot it to video. [ Nick and Shannon laugh ]
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Trideo.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah just roll software.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Is it just software?
> Mike / G.M.: But that’s connected to an attribute.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Logic, yeah, so I guess I have eight.
> Mike / G.M.: What feels to you, Bijan, like a fair number of cumulative hits for you to successfully build this?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I, so- if it’s just for us, like if it’s just the four of us plus Odina that needs access I don’t think it’s super hard or too complicated, I mean I guess the hardest part IRL or whatever would be the security aspect, probably.
> Mike / G.M.: Do you want to say, like - and you could say even that that is handled by its own roll when you’re transferring things, which is fun in game terms because that means if you fuck up that encryption roll then like, some shit isn’t encrypted for some reason - I would say yeah, if you want to have it be consistently very encrypted you could roll once a day and- you could roll that dice pool once a day and I would ask you to get to ten hits.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Okay. Yeah, I’ll do that.
> Mike / G.M.: Does that sound fair?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah that sounds fair.
> Mike / G.M.: You’re like basically baking your own PGP algorithm, y’know. [00:55:01] > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I think it’s just eight dice.
> Mike / G.M.: That sounds right.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] That is four hits.
> Mike / G.M.: Alright.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Nice.
> Mike / G.M.: Tell me what that’s like on the- so you guys are on the skimmer going back to the Mrs. Egg.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah, T.K.’s just- he’s sitting on one of the benches in a corner, he’s sort of looking out over the spray into the middle distance and he’s sort of like typing on nothing, and I think he’s, y’know- he’s doing a lot of matrix searches to figure out what he needs, what kind of- the way he needs to build it and like the best way to do it. He’s like deep into message boards right now, trying to figure out like, y’know, people have done this before.
> Mike / G.M.: Programming, yeah. Reading forums.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah he’s just like grabbing bits of code from here and there. Cause he doesn’t, he- I think he’s also feeling good about it because he doesn’t get to do this stuff very often, so he’s like yeah this’ll be a fun project. But yeah he’s also just not talking to anybody and is sort of, you know. He’s got one tab open. Not- I guess- I don’t know how, I don’t think tabs would be- it’d be like one like floating window that’s just like...
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] One space.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah just y’know, AR overlaid on top of it.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv is sitting on the boat kind of crossed legged like thinking about the agreements she’s made today, she’s basically been neutered, [ Nick and Mike laugh ] but she’s trying to meditate on the way home.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Lash is actually thinking about - because she knows time is ticking and tomorrow morning is coming closer - the conversation they had with Gabe about Yuri. She had always had such a good feeling about Yuri, and now is feeling like - especially learning the knowledge that he killed a bunch of technomancers - she’s feeling not so great about Yuri.
> Mike / G.M.: How does that- does Lash- does that thought combine at all with Lash’s feeling about seemingly liking Odina?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Y’know it’s not. [ Shannon laughs ] It’s not, because maybe she hasn’t gotten there yet.
> Mike / G.M.: Sure.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] She’s just like kind of taken aback about - she’s not at the point of like she’s judging herself of like “maybe I jump in a little too quickly about my feelings about people,” she just like, she’s not at self-reflection yet, she’s more at like surprise and like “huh, wow, okay, so what do I do now.”
> Mike / G.M.: You guys pull up- it’s y’know about a 45-minute, hour long journey, you wheel in and out of the various islands of the Brooklyn Archipelago, and it’s starting to get a little darker, sun is starting to set, you’re going around the bottom of Manhattan, you’re curling North on the West side and T.K., you do get a response from Verne as you guys are making your way back to the Mrs. Egg. You can see the monuments in the distance, so you’re in the home stretch, and the message says:
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] I just received some great news, it looks like one of the injunctions that Odina has filed has been retracted. Congratulations, thank you so very much.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] This is a-
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] This is fantastic, you’re doing a great job.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] And this is-
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] A plus plus, would recommend. [ Shannon laughs ] I again, never worked with shadowrunners before, here I am, it’s going so great on the first day.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] T.K. deletes the message
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] It’s a voicemail, it’s a- you look at the message and it’s
twenty minutes long. [ Nick laughs ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] T.K. just deletes the message.
> Mike / G.M.: He got it immediately after you sent the message and called you and then just has been talking to you the entire time. [ Nick laughs ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Oh my god.
> Mike / G.M.: [ imitating Taylor ] Hi this is Verne, it’s Wednesday at 8pm... [ Taylor, Nick
and Mike laugh ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] T.K. immediately deletes the message and resolves to hack some of Verne’s shit as soon as he sees him again, and just like vaguely fuck up something in his life.
> Mike / G.M.: Just like, delete every third photo in his commlink photo library. [ Jenn laughs ]
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] The recorder that you hacked into earlier, you get a notification from it and it’s actually picked up a big recording. It’s about twenty minutes long. [ Nick and Jenn laugh ]
> Mike / G.M.: So the skimmer pilots you to a dock that is connected to the parking lot where Henley the Bentley is parked, that sort of like destitute, strange little zone with a bunch of empty shipping containers, and some broken rotocraft and drones and some busted out old cars and Henley underneath it’s non-reflective...
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Tactical tarp.
> Mike / G.M.: ...Tactical tarp that you cover it in. So you guys are back on home ground.
Taylor if there’s- if you want to- whenever you’re ready I think. If you want to do it now. > Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Yeah I think, ah, mmm.
> Mike / G.M.: And let me know if you want me to read it in.
[00:59:56] > Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Sure, let me ask a question first, can someone describe for me the immediate environs around where Henley is parked? Are there other cars, are there dumpsters? Describe the lot where you’re picking up this car.
> Mike / G.M.: I would let you guys do that. Yeah you know generally what it looks like if you want to add any detail to it.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah I think like Mike said, y’know there’s some shipping containers, but it’s mostly just a bunch of broken down cars and like crashed pieces of, y’know there’s bits and pieces of technology, but I see it more of as like a parking lot near a dock, where it’s like-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] But it’s been totally abandoned so there’s, that’s like- people have just left their stuff there. There’s like one empty space and it’s just like that’s where Henley parks.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] And she’s got a cover on her.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah. Yeah and it’s just like piles of metal and shit, drones.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] From behind some dumpster, a pile of stuff, steps a dwarf. He’s in head-to-toe fatigues, he has a high and tight haircut, very very small beard for a dwarf - neatly manicured - he’s got like green and tan tactical pouches on his thighs, on his
waist, and they are loaded with some mysterious and small but specific gear. He’s got heavy combat boots and a big stubby but unlit cigar is jammed in between his molars on his left side. On his back are two sawed-off shotguns, you immediately recognize, and at his hip is a sidearm revolver.
> Mike / G.M.: It’s kind of like almost as long as his legs. [ Nick laughs ]
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Short, and stout, but his hands are up and he’s showing
you his palms.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Is this the same dwarf that Yuri brought over?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] No. You’ve never- as far as I know you’ve never seen this person before.
> Mike / G.M.: You’ve never seen this person before.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Cool.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] He’s walking over hands up?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Palms out, he’s not going for his guns or anything like that.
> Mike / G.M.: And it’s like- we’re just slightly past the golden hour at this point. It’s a little humid outside, it’s kinda gross.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] And he’s stepping out from behind Henley?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Not from behind Henley from behind somewhere near
Henley.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Like behind a dumpster.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Yeah yeah. [ IC ] Hey now!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Hello.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Yes?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] Hey there.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] What do you want?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] Well I’d like to talk to you for a second now if that’s alright.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Woah, what is your name and why are you armed?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] Well I’m not armed. Nothing in my hands at all as you can
see.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] You have three guns on you.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] Sure. As I’m sure y’all do too as well. I think it’s safe to say that we’re in the same business, just want to let you know I’m not here to start any trouble.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] That’s good.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] As long as things go alright. I’m here to notify you that your current employer has lost confidence in your ability to fulfill the contract, and have initiated another contract with me and my associates.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] What’s your contract?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] Our contract is you! Now this can go one of many different ways. I think it’s best for all of us if you were to give up the biometric data you have on Verne now, let us know where he is, and any sort of deal you struck with him, and the details of said deal, and we’ll be on our way. Now how does that sound?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Who’s we?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] Funny you should ask. [ Jenn laughs ] > Mike / G.M.: Does Lash ask this?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yes.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Someone leaps on top of a- there’s a big rusted orange shipping container next to Henley and you hear the very particular sound of someone landing on top of it, seemingly they have leapt from the ground to the top of this shipping container.
> Mike / G.M.: Can it please be a superhero landing?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] It is not a three-point landing, it is in fact a two-point landing, one point for each of her feet because in her hands, in each hand, is a samurai sword. And it is a human woman that is clearly, what she is definitely going to call herself, a street samurai. [ IC ] [ thick English accent ] Oy mate! You wanna get snick-a-snack bruv? Yeah? You want me run you up with me sticks yeah? Oy let me touch you with these metals, you want it? Yeah.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv is just disturbed and is massaging her temples.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Oh that’s a bad sign.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] The woman begins pacing on the shipping container, sort
of sweeping the container with her swords to make sparks.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I think your friend talks backwards? [ Mike and Bijan laugh ] What did she say?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] She’s not uh- she’s not from here, I’ll give you that.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] So, we don’t have that data on us.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] Yes you do.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] T.K.’s gonna do a matrix perception check to see if there’s any other, like, any other people around like any deckers or anything.
> Mike / G.M.: Roll it up.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Cause that shit has fucked us before.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I send a message to Gabe real quick saying what’s going on, to alert him and the ship security.
[01:04:58] > Mike / G.M.: He sends a message and he lets you know, he’s like “umm...I don’t think I’m gonna come and get in the line of fire but if you guys get in a tight spot send me a message, I’ll try to whip something up right now. The cannons don’t work yet but there’s another little thing I’ve been working on and if you need it, just let me know.” For everything- for every point- for every hit that you get Bijan, I will tell you a device that is attached to a human, starting with the ones that are closest to you.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Cool. There’s ah- that’s six hits.
> Mike / G.M.: Oh okay yeah, you did really well. Alright, hold on. Let me count that many. The dwarf has the three guns on him, he has the two sawed-off shotguns and he’s got one sidearm, each of them has a smartlink system in it. The woman with the swords has a standard loadout with just the kind of stuff that you would have - she’s got a commlink, she’s got AR goggles, she’s got AR glasses, she doesn’t have anything that is that much more complicated. You do see, through the haze, kind of like blinking like it’s trying to run silent but it’s having a hard time with maybe like the noise in the neighborhood, but you can see that there is a Erika MCD-1 cyberdeck online at the end of an empty shipping container.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] So T.K. just says “show yourself” at the direction of that deck.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] And from around the corner of that container comes a long lean and live human woman. She’s wearing a long black trench coat that looks like it might
have cost 3,000 nguyen. It does not look tactical. It is just that nice of a black trenchcoat. [ Mike laughs ] She has wraparound rectangular blocky, sort of black mirrored shades, and a perfect middle part cut at the bottom of her ears haircut that looks like it’s been medically placed.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] A blunt bob? Is that what you’re talking about?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] There’s sort of a scar down the right side of her face that’s been filled in with some sort of metallic material that seems to bleed into what is an obvious cybereye glowing from behind her sunglasses. In her hand is her deck; no one even looks back at her and she doesn’t look up from her deck and she says [ IC ] [ chewing gum sounds ] He’s looking around! [ Nick, Jenn and Mike laugh ]
> Mike / G.M.: Is she a mean girl?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] She looks at Lash and says [ IC ] huh. I didn’t know they
made pants with thigh-holes that big. [ Mike and Nick laugh ] > Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Geez.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] She is a mean girl!
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] That was so mean.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] She is a mean girl.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv would like to asense, she starts closing her eyes to see if there’s
any magic users in the crew.
> Mike / G.M.: Roll it up.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] That is intuition plus my asensing which is four plus four eight.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I have a feeling we’re gonna have to fuck up some people.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I mean they have guns, we should be careful. [ Shannon laughs ] > Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv got three hits.
> Mike / G.M.: Just roll your logic for me. I’m gonna give you a chance to get out of this.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Three hits as well.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Wow.
> Mike / G.M.: Really? Alright. The woman who is on the shipping container is an adept. You can’t really tell what her specialties are but y’know, that much you can probably tell when she jumped nine feet in the air and landed-
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Like a spider.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, and just landed on her feet. You do also see...describe to me where you’re
standing.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv is still on the skimmer. I think everyone else probably stepped off? > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] You’re all on the dock and Viv is still the last one as usual.
> Mike / G.M.: And who amongst you is closest to the dwarf?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Maybe me?
> Mike / G.M.: Okay.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I mean I think I was right behind you when we got off the skimmer > Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I mean yeah maybe slightly.
> Mike / G.M.: How are T.K. and Lash arranged in relationship to Luxe?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] They’re basically all right beside-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Like a triangle.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Like we’re walking together, talking together.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] And I’m behind them.
> Mike / G.M.: So I think because you have a wide view of the area Viv, you can see that kind of further off to the right from T.K., kinda creeping around, you do see a magical presence and it seems like it’s trying to move further behind the team.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv just opens her eyes and waits to see what else is happening.
> Mike / G.M.: So that answers- that is a long winded way of answering the question “who is we.”
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Got it.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] The dwarf speaks again. [ IC ] So now I think this is on you. Hard way or the easy way? Keep in mind, I think we’re being pretty nice considering that your decision to renege on the contract makes us all look bad.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] You’re aware we have until tomorrow to fulfill the contract?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] As I said, your employer has lost their confidence in your
intent to fulfill.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ IC ] How much is she paying you?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] Enough to do the job.
[01:10:01] > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I guess I feel like I send a message- to our comms, to our like I guess group chat saying “I guess get ready, get your spells and shit ready.” [ Bijan and Shannon laugh ]
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] “Get your spells and shit ready.”
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Like Lash get ready to jam a gun. One gun.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah. [ Bijan laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: You feel the first couple drops of tiny little raindrops.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Are there doves in the background about to start flying?
> Mike / G.M.: No. This is not a John Woo- John Woo?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: John Woo. This is not - yet - a John Woo film.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I mean if it starts raining bro, I don’t know
> Mike / G.M.: You’re also in like an abandoned car park, so we’re really like two-thirds of the way there.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah and again, rain, so.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC] [ chewing gum sounds ] They’re chatting. [ Jenn and Nick laugh ] Alright. Talking to each other, I need you to talk to me. We need to know how this is gonna shake out, right now.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Okay T.K.’s gonna try charisma, he’s gonna say alright yeah “I don’t have it. I don’t have the stuff.” I’m not gonna give it to him. We’ve gotta be be careful, we have a situation- we’ve over leveraged ourselves. We have a deal with Verne, Verne knows us, he knows what we’re gonna do, or he thinks he knows what we’re gonna do, and Odina, our deal with her is premised on the fact that we have a deal with Verne. Which means that we can’t give these guys Verne’s information. We can’t help Mo Ashina.
> Mike / G.M.: Roll it.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah. His charisma is two by the way, so this is gonna be fun.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv is not any better, she only has-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] If you’d like to assist with this I would love that, but I understand.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] I mean yeah, you have the highest of all of us.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yep.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Mike I got an active skill in perception, can I use that to fight?
> Mike / G.M.: Yep.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I will say the important part of the con too is not just like rolling the
con, you have to like talk to them, tell them what you want them to think-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Oh yeah yeah, T.K.’s trying not to do an elaborate lie because he doesn’t- he knows he’s not good at it. But he’s mustering everything he’s ever learned from books.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] I love that you’re making this effort.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Look, T.K. senses that there’s something- things could go very
badly.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] So should I set you up, should I be like “look, T.K. over here has the data, you need to talk to him.”
> Mike / G.M.: T.K. definitely doesn’t have the data is what you mean. > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] No, no-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I meant, I meant- sorry. [ Shannon laughs ] T.K. over here’s the data guy, you’d have to talk to him.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I think T.K.’s lie’s gonna be that he’s uploaded the data somewhere that is like a one-time use server because he thought this kind of thing was gonna happen, which is a lie but...
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I got five hits so you got five extra dice. > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Alright. That makes this respectable.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Alright.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah so T.K.’s gonna say “yeah, y’know, I’m- we got the scan but I figured this might happen when we decided to part ways with Mo Ashina so I put it in a little safety deposit box that I cooked up. If anybody tries to access it who’s not me, everything goes away.” That’s three hits.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] I got two hits. [ Bijan laughs ] > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Thank you, Luxe.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] He’s never met you before. He doesn’t have a book on you yet.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] No.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] Well if you don’t have it here, why don’t you tell me where
it is?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Can’t do that.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC] I think you should.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Are you gonna pull out your gun if I don’t?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] I might. My comrades might.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I don’t have it on me, so. I’m not exactly sure where I put it. I could find it-
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Me, Taylor, the player, is rolling my eyes so hard. > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I know, I know I was just like, I’m bad at this.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] You don’t know where you- does that bullshit fall under the same roll? [ Nick laughs ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Well here’s what I was going to say, here’s what I was going to say, he doesn’t know where he put it because he-
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Who are you talking to? [ Nick laughs ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I’m thinking through this, holy shit, this is difficult, I don’t do this. > Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] You’ve got a gun on you.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Well no basically T.K.’s like, his reasoning here is like he’s sent it through a Tor-like thing, bouncing between a bunch of different boxes that he has, and he can find the information but it is like somewhere that’s going to take a lot of time, which is again a lie, it’s literally like in his dropbox, whatever.
> Mike / G.M.: It’s literally in the desktop folder of his- [ Nick laughs ] labelled Verne_scan_final.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] But he’s going to lie and hope that this guy doesn’t know what Tor is. Or whatever future Tor looks like.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I’m about to start hacking this decker.
> Mike / G.M.: If T.K. is saying this in a way such that everyone who is around can hear it, this
is something that Sunshine-
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Yes, I’m aware.
> Mike / G.M.: ...is very suspicious of.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Yes, yeah, that was my next move. > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] So, I mean look-
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] The dwarf says [ IC ] Hey Sunshine! Yeah. Y’ever heard of a decker taking information that valuable, throwing it away and not knowing how to get it back? No. Yup, me either. [ Shanon laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: God I hate her so much!
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] I love that you’re doing these two different voices.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] There’s a quiet moment. The rain’s falling a little bit heavier, you can hear the pitter-patter on the metal, and then the dwarf says [ IC ] geek the mage.
[01:15:00] > Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Oh wonderful.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] You need to roll will.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Oh, why!
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] I know...
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] That’s what you do.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Okay, my will is six...oh shit, one hit. [ Bijan laughs ]
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Fuck yes! Alright now you’ve got to tell me what to do, so-
> Mike / G.M.: Did you roll your drain?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] No drain.
> Mike / G.M.: No drain. I don’t know what Taylor did so we’re gonna work our way through it, you got one hit.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yes.
> Mike / G.M.: What did you roll, Taylor?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] I rolled five hits.
> Mike / G.M.: On what?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Stun bolt. Which is essentially a sleeping spell. It’s a channeling of stun energy directly into a body, also called sleep spells.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] When he says “geek the mage,” there’s a blur of movement and activity around the corner of a big pile of trash. A little piece of scrap is knocked loose, and an extremely tall, high-cheekboned, long pointed-eared, blue-skinned elf in a shimmering velvet robe turns the corner around the pile of trash, flicks his wrist and this black iridescent dart of void matter flies through the air and hits Viv square in the back, for four stun damage.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Mhm. In that moment Viv is sort of feeling blissful because there’s another magic user around, but of course it hurts. [ Nick, Mike and Shannon laugh ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] But it knocks her forward onto the skimmer.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay, easy everybody!
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Oh now you’re saying stuff. [ Shannon laughs ] > Mike / G.M.: We are now in initiative. Everybody, please roll.
[ Main Theme begins ]
> Mike / G.M.: You are now leaving Fun City. Thanks for listening, if you want to support the show, get access to ad-free episodes, our Discord, our bi-weekly post-episode chat show "Fun Chatty", and more, head to patreon.com/funcityventures. And of course, thanks to all of our current patrons for help keeping this ship afloat. If you like the show, you can give us a rating on iTunes, tell your pals about it, or just come say hey to any or all of us on Twitter.
[ Main Theme concludes ] [ End Theme begins ]
> Bijan: I am Bijan Stephen, and I am T.K. You can find me online @bijanstephen on Twitter, which is B-I-J-A-N S-T-E-P-H-E-N. Or on Instagram, and you should just google that.
> Jenn: I'm Jenn de la Vega! I am Viv. You can find me online @randwiches, that's the word sandwiches but just replace the S with an R.
> Nick: This is Nick Guercio, I play Luxe Scythe. You can find me on Twitter @nguersh and Instagram @nguercio, G-U-E-R-C-I-O.
> Shannon: This is Shannon Odell, I play Lash Goodbog. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter @shodell, S-H-O-D-E-L-L.
> Taylor: This is Taylor Moore and I play all the Bad Boys. I'm @taylordotbiz.
> Mike: My name is Mike Rugnetta, I am your G.M. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @mikerugnetta. You can find the show on Twitter @funcityventures. Fun City was recorded at Fortunate Horse, in beautiful Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It was produced, edited, and sound designed by me, Mike Rugnetta. Pixlriffs is our backwards-talking English hype beast. All of the show's music is by Sam Tyndall. Our art is by Tess Stone. Our Discord mods are Olivia Gulin, Kit, and Kestrel. And the voice of Artemis is Molly Templeton.
[ End Theme concludes ]